Quote:
Originally Posted by vindibona1
The system of equal temperament is off by design...The thing is that the intonation issue is most clear when playing triads or chords.
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Those are two different, unrelated things. The first is temperament, which determines the target pitches. The second is intonation, which is how closely or accurately an instrument is able to achieve the target pitches.
By design, nearly all guitars are fretted to produce pitches belonging to equal temperament. If a guitar had "perfect" intonation - was able to sound exactly the target pitches of equal temperament - it would still sound out of tune. It sounds out of tune, not because of a failure of the instrument to accurately produce the target pitches, but because the target pitches are off. Intonation is a separate issue from temperament. (It's also a different issue that many, many guitars have poor intonation and many buyers either don't expect better or can't tell the difference.)
Since you can't, on most guitars, move the frets around so that they do not produce equal temperament pitches, the best you can do is decide how you want adjust string tensions to have specific notes, at specific frets, sound "better" and deviate from the pitches of equal temperament. As others have pointed out, it moves the out-of-tuneness around, possibly to a place that is temporarily less objectionable for that specific key or piece of music.